Marie Maybell Johnson will likely be charged with the murder of Elmer Roehrs, a 94-year-old Del Ray man who was found dead inside his Holly Street home on Wednesday evening, according to sources with information about the Alexandria police investigation.
Johnson was arrested early Thursday morning in connection to a burglary that happened at Roehrs’ house on Nov. 27, 2012. She was picked up during a traffic stop on Duke Street in Old Town.
The 45-year-old woman with no fixed address was in court Friday facing charges related to the November burglary.
See: Victim in Suspicious Death Identified as Elmer Roehrs.
Johnson knew Roehrs and rented an apartment from his wife, Marian Bouk, according to The Washington Post.
Bouk owns several apartment buildings south of the city and in one instance, according to a May 2012 feature story in Greater Alexandria Patch, waived a security deposit to help a woman in need.
Police initially classified the Roehrs case a “suspicious death.” Police said he suffered trauma to his upper body. His identity was made public Thursday morning.
The incident was ruled a homicide Thursday afternoon following the results of an autopsy.
See: Roehrs’ Death Now Ruled a Homicide.
According to a myfoxdc.com report, Roehrs was killed during an apparent burglary or robbery.
The brick Colonial home where Roehrs’ lived had a history of break-ins. Marian Bouk’s son, David, a resident of the Holly Street house and believed to be the one who discovered Roehrs’ body, reported two burglaries at the home in 2011. He even addressed City Council about the “persistent” issue that March, mentioning one of the burglaries occurred while he took his “mother’s husband” to the hospital.
Bouk said in those burglaries, jewelry and cash was taken from the house. A vehicle near the home was also burglarized that winter.
See: Alexandria Police Investigate Suspicious Death in Holly Street Home.
The Del Ray area has experienced an uptick in burglaries and robberies in 2013, including two gunpoint robbery incidents, two home break-ins and two business burglaries since Jan. 14.
On Monday night, members of the Alexandria Police Department briefed the Del Ray Citizens Association on investigations into those incidents.
Roehrs' murder is the first homicide in Alexandria since October 2011.
The Roehrs-Bouk residence is located near Holly Street’s intersection with W. Mount Ida Avenue and just around the corner from the home where Nancy Dunning, the wife of then-Alexandria Sheriff Jim Dunning, was found murdered in December 2003. That case remains unsolved.
Patch will provide more information on this story as it becomes available.
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